Coal, gas generation fall sharply in Germany, renewables up

Renewables International

German utilities organization BDEW has published its data for Q1 2014, showing that power from hard coal was down by 17.4 percent, while power from lignite was down by 4.8 percent.

The biggest loser, however, continues to be natural gas, which was down by 19.7 percent.The figures confirm Fraunhofer ISE’s data provided based on preliminary figures last month – and forecast in January. In addition to the downturn in power from fossil fuels, nuclear power was down by 4.6 percent – almost exactly the same level as lignite, a clear indication that those two power sources are roughly qually inflexible.

Power from biomass grew by 5.4 percent. Solar power production was up by 82.5 percent, compared to 20.6 percent increase in onshore wind. Power from offshore turbines group from a negligible level by 33.5 percent.

Overall, the share of renewables was up as a share of total power consumption from 23.4 percent last year to 24.7 percent in Q1. As a share of domestic demand (excluding exports), the share of renewables rose from 25 percent to 27 percent.